Hemp wants Bangladesh batters to make 'good decisions' on tough wickets

Despite reaching the Super 8s, Bangladesh’s struggles with the bat have been out there for everyone to see. The consistent failure of the top order is a matter of concern and without their bowlers stepping up, it was difficult to see them making past the first round.

Placed with Australia, India, and Afghanistan in the same Super 8 group, Bangladesh will need big runs from their batters in what could be easier conditions for batting going forward. So far, in what have been challenging conditions, most teams have reaped the benefit of having someone from their top four bat till the end but it has not been the case with Bangladesh. Too many shots against the new ball have clearly proved costly.

Bangladesh batting coach David Hemp wants his batters to make sure that they are not 15 to 20 runs short, as has been the case in the group stages of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup.

“We have seen that the wickets in this competition so far have not been conducive to 200 totals and we need to be smart enough making those assessments of surface and conditions and later adjusting and adapting to those conditions, to give ourselves the best opportunity batting first. It will ensure that the bowlers have something to defend. And if you are chasing then obviously you got to chase what you got to chase and that’s a different conversation and you have to play according to the situation. But when we bat first, we need to make sure we are not 15 or 20 runs short because we have not been able to make the right assessment,” Hemp told Cricbuzz recently.

“I think if you look at a couple of our innings, if we scored 15 to 20 more runs we would have won the game. We won some really tight games with low scores but even the Holland [Netherlands] game we got one sixty (from Shakib) and we were in a position to get 180. Again it’s about making good decisions and that’s the challenge.”

In fact, making “good decisions” is what the team talk has been in the Bangladesh dressing room lately.

“I think we just need to make better adjustments to the surface that we are playing on. Look at the four games we played so far, two were reasonable surfaces and two were challenging,” Hemp said.

“A big part of batting is adjusting to the conditions you are playing in and then it becomes a matter of making good decisions based on that. So that’s the one point we have talked about. We are making sure that we are ready for the surface, how we gonna play on that and what we gonna feel is enough for this surface and what is going to be an effective way of scoring… that’s what we are talking about.”

Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain’s batting form in the ongoing global tournament is a major concern as he only managed to score 26 runs in four games so far. His decision to play a reverse sweep early in the innings against the Netherlands was a matter of discussion.

“The reverse-sweep of Shanto? People can talk about the timing of it as he only faced just a couple of balls but the reverse sweep is a shot that he plays well and he backs himself to execute,” Hemp said.

“Batters gonna get out and that’s the nature of the game and unfortunately as a batter you make one misjudgment and you are gone and it’s different to the bowler who gets lots of opportunity. He can bowl a bad ball and still get a wicket but batting is not necessarily like that, so if the batters have a strength it’s important that they stick to that strength and trust that strength.

“You can argue about the timing or the dismissals or when people decide to take those options and so that’s a discussion point but for him it’s a shot that he is comfortable playing with and he has played it well in the past so we want to encourage that mindset.

Hemp added that he is confident about out-of-form Litton Kumar Das, who scored 46 in four games at the T20 World Cup, and backed the batter to get back into his groove.

“I think at the moment he (Litton) is making one sort of misjudgment and falling short but his movement and the way he is striking the ball have been good,” said Hemp. “It’s just a case of backing up a little bit longer so I won’t say he is doing anything drastically wrong because he is showing glimpses of how everyone knows he can play at the moment. He is just making one mistake and paying for that,” he added.

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